Chsl elections

The Secretary cannot take the Society as his / her "personal" property, which is governed by Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960 and Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Rules, 1961.

Contact, consult and engage a local prudent lawyer to proceed before Registrar Cooperative Societies for appointment of Administrator to conduct elections of the Society within a time frame. 

I agree with the views of the learned senior expert Dr. J.C.Vashista Sir.

A single poerson, may be he is a secretary or anything, cannot hold legal body at stake for his personal gins.

First of all without taking any action through registrar, hesitating to initiate any action on the basis of your imaginary fears, will not fetch you any relief, therefore at least now you people can intiate legal action, the registrar also is not the final authority, if any decision is given in his favor, you can approach court for relief and remedy.

If the secretary has resigned, there will be the Chairman and other MC members. You deal with them only and not with the Secretary who is a nobody. If the Secretary has resigned, the Chairman and other members of the MC should elect/appoint another MC member as Secretary. Until then the Chairman should take over and act. You register a complaint with the Asst. Registrar with respect to your ward. You can register the complaint as a single member or jointly with other members.  Do not assume things without acting. The former Secretary cannot influence the Registrar. If the Registrar does not act or if you are not satisfied with his response, you can appeal to the co-operative court. A few members can join together and meet the Asst. Registrar. His office was in Malhotra building opposite GPO. It may still be there. He may appoint a Returning Officer to conduct the elections. 

These kind of issues we have faced in our society also in the past. I was myself Secretary of our Society for 10 years. Even now the Managing Committee often takes my advice as a senior member.

Thank you all for your replies and guidance. One more issue we are facing in holding our CHSL elections is 

Our society has a Joint Managing Committee composed of 4 members from the commercial wing and 7 members from the residential wing. The commercial wing has divided their offices into smaller units (e.g., 1a and 1b, or 2a, 2b, 2c), all within the same office space in many offices in commercial wing of the society which is 3 floors and Residential wing is 6 floors. They are now claiming that each unit represents a separate member, which would give them additional representation and votes in committee elections. This move appears to be an attempt to undermine the balance of power in the committee.

Could someone advise on how we might challenge this approach or address this issue, as it is disrupting the committee's composition and fairness? Awaiting reply.

"The commercial wing has divided their offices into smaller units ..........." Has this been done fpllowing the due procedure with the approval of the Society?

Unfortunately they have share certificates for the same as informed by our earlier members and is also mentioned in i and g register as informed by earlier members.

When a Society is formed and registered the flats and shops would have been specified with one member and one vote for each of them. If there are more owners with respect to any unit their names will be entered as members in the same share certificate. Only the first member will have vote and the second one only in the absence of the first members. No flat or shop can be further sub-divided and additinal votes claimed. If 2 shops or flats are merged under one member he will have only. In the co-operative moment principle one man one vote is very important. If a shop is divided with 2 owners the approval of the registering authority is necessary.

Hello Dr. Ramani thank you for your detailed reply but can you pls let me know what do you mean by approval of the registering authority is necessary...for a better clear picture...also one more query we have is Can Associate member vote or prarticipate in elections. Awaitng reply.

When a co-operative housing society initially applies for registration, among other things, the application should state the number of units in the society, number of members and the names of the original members. When the registrar approves the registration and returns the approved first byelaws it will contain the number of units, number of total votes (one member one vote basis) and the names of first members. If these are changed for any reason a fresh application for necessary amendment will have to be made. An Associate Member is defined as the member whose name does not appear first in the list of members in the share certificate. An Associate Member does not have voting rights at a general meeting. But if his primary member does not attend the meeting, he will have one vote as his proxy.

Hello sir after conducting meetings in the society to pursue the elections the matter has gone more complicated i.e. there was some case in Registrar between the commercial side and residential side for some property transfer in commercial side which was not being transferred by the existing resigned acting  secretary as well as for some irregularities in society btwn the commercial side and residential side in which the residential side acting secretary hand in glove with the existing Chairman has gone ahead and written letter to Registrar to appoint an administrator in our society to sort out things. Now we as inexperienced society members are not able to figure out what to do. We even took a legal opinion from a lawyer and he also suggested to go to Registrar and and give letter from society members for holding elections first. So the question is - the acting secretary has already given letter hand in glove with Chairman to registrar for appointing Administrator recently, will approaching the registrar to hold the elections now help or our request for holding elections in society to Registrar will not be honoured by the Registrar saying we already have a letter from the society Chairman requesting to appoint an Administrator. Maybe i am not able to frame the question correctly but hope you understand what i am trying to ask here. Awaiting reply.

How many members are there in your Managing Committee?  Are all bad members or there are some good members also? How many good members are there? Do they constitute at least 1/3 the strength of the Committee?  If so under Sec:57A the good members can make an application to the Registrar in Form M-18 to remove the bad members from the committee. The bad members may include the Secretary against whom you have complaint. Get a good lawyer (a rare commodity) to advise you.

Can rersidential and commercial be permitted to be registered and operate is a "single" cooperative society by Registrar Maharashtra Cooprative Societies ? I think it cannot be.  

Thank you for the guidance but we are really stuck it is hard to believe that even in the largest democracy we have to fight such issues where a wrong person can single handedly do whatever he wants with money power against a group of people who want to put him down. Really feel helpless. We have approached a lawyer as well as an consultant who has taken appointment with Registrar after 1 week as the Registrar is not available for 1 week due to long weekend holidays now in Mumbai...